Hold On

Chapter 6

“You really need to eat, Harry.” Niall said as he offered me a bag of food. He and the others had grabbed something to eat, bringing me something back.

I shook my head, not looking at the bag.

“I’ll leave it here for you.” He said as he set it on the table beside me, “Okay?”

I nodded my head. I could see the look he gave me before he left the room. His eyes were full of sorrow and pity. I knew that he and the guys wouldn’t leave, they cared too much. I also think that was another reason that they had to leave the room, they had gotten to the point where they couldn’t stand to see Sarah like this anymore.

I couldn’t bring myself to do that thought. I glanced over at the bag of food for a moment. I looked away, I couldn’t eat it right now. I was so confused. For the near two hours that the boys were gone, I had been thinking about what I had thought earlier. I had been thinking about all the things that I loved about Sarah. She was nice and funny and always stood up for me, not to mention we always told each other everything. We knew all of the other’s secrets. That was a promise that we had made to each other early on in high school.

“Sarah, you have to tell me what’s wrong.” I begged her as she cried. I hadn’t seen her all day at school, so I had gone looking for her. I had found her hiding in between some cars in the parking lot. She had her face buried in her knees and she was refusing to look or speak to me.

“Sarah…” I muttered her name as I wrapped an arm around her shoulder. I was worried about her right now. Sarah never broke down like this. She was always the tough girl who took care of everyone else.

“They….jumped me…” I barely heard her whimper. I looked down at her, not sure what she was talking about.

“Who jumped you?” I whispered to her softly.

I could hear her hiccup a little as she tried to catch her breath, “Richard.”

I felt my blood boil. Richard was a spoiled rich kid who always got what he wanted, that was the main reason why he hated when he didn’t get his way. But I wasn’t sure why he would want to do anything to Sarah, she had never done anything to him.

“Why did he do that?”

“Because I told him no.”

I looked at her as she started to lean into me. “What did you say no to?”

She managed to pull her face up from her knees, but she wouldn’t look at me. She just stared down at her shoes. “He wanted me to go to the dance with him Friday night, but I told him no. He got mad and told me that no one told him no.”

I could hear the tears threatening to fall again. I wiped her tears away.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked, “I could have protected you.”

“I didn’t want to get you involved.” The tears fell rapidly again, “I thought it was nothing.”

I shook my head, “I don’t care. You still should have told me.”

“I know,” she cried as she buried her face in my chest. A muffled, “Sorry,” could be heard.

I wrapped my arms around her, letting her cry.

“I know,” I shushed her, “but you need to promise that you’ll tell me these things from now on.”

I felt her nod her head in my chest. More hiccups were heard as she tried to calm herself down.

“How about we promise not to keep any secrets from each other?” I smiled at her as she leaned back to look at me.

She wiped her cheeks as she gave me a smile, “Okay.”

“Okay then,” I smiled. “So can I go kick his ass now?”

She chuckled a little, “Harry…”

“What?” I held my hands up innocently, “That jerk needs to know to back off you.”

She just smiled, “Don’t butt in.”

We had continued to debate the point, but I think she knew that I wouldn’t get into an actually fight. I wasn’t that gutsy. She finally won, like always. We had left school early that day and just walked around town. It helped to cheer her up. That was also the day that she coined one her favorite sayings for me. ‘Keep your curls on.’ She started saying it every time something bothered me.

I looked up at my best friend as she lay motionless. That day, I realized just how much I cared about Sarah. The thought of that jerk Richard hurting her had made my blood boil, something that I couldn’t quite understand. I thought I had just wanted to protect my friend, but now realized differently. I had fallen for my best friend instead. I was in love with Sarah.